Keeping invitation cost down

Etiquette is so silly sometimes. I've never heard that's a rule of it.
You could find a nice font and run the envelopes through your printer. We did it on our save the dates and they looked wonderful.

My husband and I live a very sustainable life, so we decided to have a paperless wedding

. So we're not having physical invitations.

I got our invitations from Ann's Bridal Bargains for less than $1 for each invite + RSVP card. I got cheap but nice looking address labels for the return address and I'm just going to handwrite all of the addresses myself. So all in all I will have spent about $75 on invites for our 150 people not including stamps.

I've never heard of etiquette dictating that you need to hire a calligrapher to address your envelopes. I have a Cricut, so I plan to use that to write the guests' addresses, but if that wasn't an option, I would likely print them on clear labels or print directly on the envelopes.

We just addressed them ourselves and ordered simple ones from a site like snapfish or shutterfly. That's the last thing I wanted to blow the budget on.

The prices are out of control! The invites I originally wanted were nearly as much as a photographer so I immediately canned that idea lol To save I brought my invitations early. I took advantage of the Black Friday sales which cut cost. I’m printing labels for each invite, I can use the calligraphy text in word 🤣🤣🤣 I realized I wanted to get the matching Thank You cards, I’ll purchase those on the next holiday sale that I see from the company.

It's actually etiquette on the Knot. It says do not print labels for invitations. I may just skip this recommendation and save money.

Etiquette doesn't say to hire a calligrapher. Etiquette cares about treating people well, not handwriting. It does care that you invite people's significant others, that there's a chair for every butt, appropriate food and beverage for the time of day, and that guests never have to open their wallets 😉. Handwriting, or computer printing, just needs to be legible so that the postal service can deliver the invitations. Simply black lettering on an envelope is always preferred.

If what you want is a simple elegant invitation, create your own, check etsy, or pay a talented acquaintance to design something. Then take the computer file to a printer (FedEx, UPS, Office Depot, etc). You can also check Zazzle, Minted, Shutterfly, envelopes com, etc for coupon codes and sales.

Whatever you do, minimize the number of inserts you are including. Don't use inner envelopes or pocket folds. The costs of the actual invitation suite will be less and so will postage. If you use online RSVP, you can easily get by with the actual invitation and then one insert with the website url and an RSVP date.

You can print envelopes on a regular printer, just check the settings. I will be doing that or getting the clear labels from Avery and printing them. I’m not hiring a calligrapher to write on paper that will just end up in the trash.

As for the invites, right now I’m leaning towards a custom digital file on Etsy. They usually are between $10-$20 then you print how you want, Staples, Vistaprint etc...

Visa print always has sales rights now it is 7.29 for 10 folded invites.

I'm not at the invitation stage yet, but I ordered my Save the Dates from Vista Print and they were great quality + 60% off! I was so excited... I only paid around $45 for 100 invites.

I would check to see if there's discounts you can use at various printing companies. As far as calligraphy...I love it and all...but that is such an (expensive) expense! I hand wrote my STD's, and I plan to just print directly on the envelope for the invites. I think I'm going to go with getting my invitations from Minted, and I know they do all of the addressing for you, which is nice.

We designed the invitations, save-the-dates, thank you cards and envelopes on VistaPrint. We bought a book of plain stickers and printed the names and addresses on them, and stuck those on the envelopes. We chose a font that matched the style of the envelopes (and the style of the wedding), and I'm really happy with how they came out. We had to practice on a few sticker sheets to get the spacing right on the sticker sheets, but that's no biggie. No calligrapher needed!

Etiquette is treating your guests as you would want to be treated - it has nothing to do with whether you choose the right calligraphy.

We designed ours on Canva for free and then had them printed at a local printer. 100 invitations, a details card, a rehearsal card & envelopes for less than $50. You could also have a fedex, staples, ups kind of place quote you for printing. The thought of a calligrapher did not even cross my mind haha I just hand addressed the, but definitely agree with a PP who mentioned just finding a nice font and running them through your printer. Vista Print (I think) will also address your envelopes for free (I think).

I'll be addressing my own, with the help of my sister. Vistaprint actually has a really good sale going on right now. The ones I were looking at were .58 each.

I know minted does free envelope addressing with their invitations, they are a little pricey though

I got our invites from vistaprint during a 50% off sale and I love them. I have been printing the addresses little by little directly on the envelopes and it’s been super easy. I wasn’t spending the money for a calligrapher (even though I love the way they look) and I didn’t want to write them all by hand.

I wouldn't hire a calligrapher. Print them at home on the envelopes, you could try to price what it would be at staples or local shops for them to print it.

I'll be printing on clear labels. None of our guests are going to care what the outside of the envelope looks like unless it's really hideous, and it won't be.

I'm not a fan of using labels on wedding invites. I think it cheapens it somewhat. That being said, I wouldn't side eye anyone who had them.

We ordered our invites from Minted and they did the addressing for free. Of course, they charge to print the return address LOL

We paid a local woman to do ours for $0.70 an envelope for guest addresses, then I bought a $20 stamp on Etsy for return addresses. We got a nicer invitation suite with a card & 3 insert cards for $350 total for 115 invitation suites including envelopes. Zazzle has great deals.